The Presbyterian Panel began in 1973 and is an ongoing panel study in which mailed and web-based questionnaires are used to survey representative samples of constituency groups of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). These constituency groups include members, elders, pastors serving in a congregation and specialized clergy serving elsewhere. "At the 2012 General Assembly (GA), PC(USA) leaders encouraged Presbyterians to create 1,001 new worshiping communities (NWCs) between 2012 and 2022. The objectives of this panel were to (1) identify how aware today's Presbyterians are of the 1001 NWC initiative, (2) assess how engaged they are in the initiative, and (3) compare current panelists' awareness of and involvement in the 1001 NWC initiative to panelists from 2014." (1001 New Worshiping Communities: The Report of the Volume 2: 2016 Presbyterian Panel Survey). This dataset contains data from clergy, members and elders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

"A total of 3,062 panelists (sampled and volunteer) were invited to participate in this survey. Surveys were offered in English and were distributed via both web-based and paper questionnaires. The paper questionnaire was mailed on May 13, 2016 to 1,101 individuals who were sampled to become panelists. The web survey was distributed on May 27, 2016 via email invitation to 1,961 panel volunteers and sampled panelists who have either requested web-based surveys or for whom Research Services has email addresses and who Research Services continues to invite to participate in the Panel. All web non-respondents were sent email reminders on June 1, 2016, and June 8, 2016. Returns for both versions of the survey were accepted through August 2, 2016." (1001 New Worshiping Communities: The Report of the Volume 2: 2016 Presbyterian Panel Survey)

Sampling Procedures

This survey was the fifth Presbyterian Panel survey to be completed by the 2015-2017 panelists. This survey had 55 percent sampled and 45 percent volunteer respondents.

Response Rate: 3,062 panelists were invited to participate in this survey. Research services had incorrect addresses for 165 panelists so 2,897 panelists received the survey. Of those, 1,204 completed the survey. The response rate is 43 percent.